Albert Lavignac Biography

Marmontel, Bazin and Benoist were Lavignac’s teachers at the Paric Conservatoire. He was quite successful at the conservatoire where he won the premiere in solfege competition in 1857, piano in 1867, and harmony and accompaniment in 1863. The `second’ was won by Lavignac in organ in 1865. By 1871 he was employed by the Conservatory as a lecturer in solfege and was made a full professor in 1875. In 1891 he also began teaching harmony. The genres of Lavignac’s compositions included songs, and easy piano pieces as well as transcriptions of the works by Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Gounod, Handel, Mendelssohn, and Weber. “Cours complet…de dictee musicale” was a pedagogical work by Lavignac and helped to introduce music dictation as a course of study at the Conservatoire. “Ecole de la pedale” was the first work of its kind focusing entirely on piano methodology. Lavignac also founded the historical project “Encyclopedie de la musique et Dictionaire du Conservatoire.” The dictionary portion of the work did not come to fruition.